Vintage threads from the first ten years

Re: Optimum B+ for EL84s

Re: Optimum B+ for EL84sSteve:
I'm not so sure the tubes are the cause of your problem. Bruce is certainly there on the ma.draw question, but he is probably even closer when it comes to over saturated output transformers. American transfomers seam to use a lot less iron and don't have the same kind of dampning qualities of an english design. I'm now expermenting with the same issue on a Marshall 20 watt head that I've heavily modded and now over saturating the stock transformer. I seeing very interesting results using several different speaker cabs and configurations. There seams to be significant change in load in factors on the transformer which is having marked differences in tonal qualities and signal breakup. So don't be afraid of opening it up the back end with a different output trans. It might be very interesting.